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Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ Huntsmen by Michelle Osgood

Today I’m very
lucky to be interviewing Michelle Osgood, author of Huntsmen. Hi Michelle, thank
you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your
background, and your current book.

Hi! Thank you for having me. I’m a queer romance writer from Vancouver,
BC. My first novel, The Better to Kiss You With, was a F/F paranormal romance published
by Interlude Press in 2016. Huntsmen, the next book in the series,
is a F/NB romance with a bit more of an urban fantasy feel, and follows Kiara,
the Alpha-designate of her werewolf pack as she’s forced into hiding with her
genderqueer ex-lover, Ryn.

I am currently
working on my third book in this series, which will focus on Nathan Roberts and
Cole Lyons. Nathan and Cole met in The Better to Kiss You With, when Nathan
and Deanna were facing down her cyber stalker and rogue werewolf, Crywolf. In Huntsmen,
Nathan and Cole’s attraction deepens, and when this third book begins they have
been dating for several months.

Nathan is Deanna’s
best friend, and in Huntsmen it’s his
apartment where the pack and Ryn find themselves holed up as they try to figure
out who the Huntsmen are, and what they want.
Nathan is a pansexual, poly librarian, and one of my favorite characters
to write. Along with Deanna, he is
human, and is struggling to adapt to a world that suddenly includes werewolves. He can come off as flippant and careless, but
his clever quips hide a shrewd mind.
Nathan likes to be surrounded by people, and when he begins to isolate
himself in this third book, it’s more than a little worrying…

Cole Lyons is
Kiara’s older brother, and a werewolf as well.
Cole works as a paramedic, and is known for his level head and ability
to adapt to any situation. He is often
the voice of reason in the group, and someone others will go to for comfort or
advice. Cole cares deeply for the people
in his life, and when Nathan’s obsession with the supernatural becomes
dangerous Cole is the first to voice his concern.

Unsure what
believe, Nathan doesn’t take Cole’s intervention well and wonders if Cole might
be hiding the truth. After all, if Cole
can keep the fact that he is a werewolf secret, what else isn’t he
sharing? And if werewolves are real…
what else might be?

HUNTSMEN ~ SUMMARY AND AUTHOR

Summary

Months
after saving Jamie and Deanna from crywolf, Kiara and her brother Cole have
moved into the city. While clubbing one night, Kiara is stunned to see her ex,
Taryn, onstage. But before she can react, Jamie notices a distinctive tattoo in
the crowd: an axe rumored to be the mark of the Huntsmen, a group of
werewolf-tracking humans. The girls need to leave immediately—and since Taryn
is also a werewolf, they need to take her with them.

The
Huntsmen are more than a myth, and they’re scouring the city for lone wolves
just like Taryn. Until the General North American Assembly of Werewolves lends
a plan of action, Kiara’s small pack is on lockdown in a friend’s apartment,
where she and Taryn must face the differences that drove them apart.
Furthermore, the longer the group waits, the more it seems the Huntsmen haven’t
been acting entirely on their own.

HUNTSMEN ~ EXCERPTS

She couldn’t
imagine a future without a pack… could she?

* * *

The hallway was eerily quiet. At
this time of day Kiara’d expected at least a few people headed off to work.
They rode the elevator in silence down to the garage level. She was taking
Nathan’s car, something she knew he wouldn’t thank her for, but the car keys
had been on the same keychain as the house keys, and it had seemed too perfect
to resist. Besides, once they got far enough away she’d dump it and find
something else.

For the first time since that
night at Kings of Hearts, there was no tension between her and Ryn. The silence
as the elevator moved could have been awkward, but their shared purpose burned
away any discomfort. Kiara felt herself falling back in sync with Ryn. A part
of her worried at the ease of it. Would it be as easy to pull back if—when—she
had to? But she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she had one
goal, and that was to get Ryn as far from the Huntsmen and GNAAW as she could.

The elevator doors opened, and
they stepped out into the empty lobby. The parkade was through another door,
where the pop of lime-green glowed bright in the concrete lobby, and Kiara
pushed through it. She jogged down the few stairs before she stepped out into
the parkade. “Nathan has a Mazda3 hatchback,” Kiara said. “I don’t know where
he parks it, but—”

“Kiara.” Ryn’s voice was sharp.
Kiara froze, all her senses suddenly on alert. They weren’t alone.

*
* *

“You can’t come back here.”

Confronted by an upheld palm,
Kiara halted at the stairs that led backstage.

“This area is for performers
only.” The Latina woman’s face was set in bored lines; her yellow shirt
identified her as one of the club’s staff. Clearly it was not the first time
she’d turned someone away that night.

“Look, I’m
meeting—”

“Hun, I don’t care if you’re
meeting Evan Rachel Wood herself. Performer’s only.” The woman enunciated the
last part without managing to pull her attention from the room behind Kiara.

The prickling behind Kiara’s eyes
mounted and was echoed in the flesh of her gums.

“I won’t tell if you won’t, ‘kay?
This is my girlfriend. We won’t cause any trouble. Promise.” Ryn held out her
hand past Maria.

Kiara placed her hand in Ryn’s
and plastered a smile across her face. “I’ll be good.” She added a flutter of
her eyelashes and coaxed a blush to her cheeks. Ryn’s skin was hot under her
palm. Touching Ryn had always felt like touching the sun.

“Thank you.” Ryn winked at Maria,
and Kiara heard the woman’s heartbeat accelerate in response. With a valiant
effort, Kiara swallowed her huff of annoyance.

The back of the stage was dimly
lit. Ryn kept Kiara’s hand in hers as she led the way, deftly avoiding the few
other performers who loitered about, waiting for their turns on stage.

“We have to go,” Kiara repeated.
She spoke more loudly now that they were away from everyone else.

“I heard you the first time.”

“Then what are we doing?” Kiara’s
fingers curled perfectly around Ryn’s. She wanted to yank her hand free. She
wanted to kiss the spot where they fit so well together.

“I have to get my bag.”

Ten years. Surely ten years was
long enough for feelings to fade, for the memory of what they had been to dull.
She shouldn’t feel the bright hurt, the greedy hunger, as though it had been
yesterday.

In the back of her head a siren
screamed, a warning that she didn’t have time for this. Kiara’s grip on Ryn’s
hand tightened involuntarily.

“Leave it.”

“I’m not leaving it. There’s five
thousand dollars’ worth of equipment in there.”

“Ryn, you heard me. The Huntsmen
are here.”

“Maybe.” They reached a set of lockers,
and Ryn wriggled her fingers free of Kiara’s. “Aren’t you the one who told me
they’re a myth? Do you really think they’d show up in Vancouver? At a drag
king show?” But even as she spoke she opened the locker door and pulled
free a large duffle bag.

“Werewolves are supposed to be
myths, too.”

“And yet,” Ryn conceded. She
slung the bag over her shoulder. “My bike is out front.”

* * *

Kiara spilled out into the night
with Ryn’s hand tucked securely in hers. The snow had stopped, finally, but the
night had been cold enough to steal Kiara’s breath away. She tugged her coat
tighter now that they were outside the smoky, sweaty club and wished she hadn’t
worn a skirt.

“We’re never going to get a cab,”
Kiara moaned. “And the busses don’t start again for another,” she checked her
phone, “Two hours.”

“Aww, poor pack princess,” Ryn
teased. “Did it ever occur to you that there’s another solution? One that
doesn’t require us to stand in the cold for two more hours.”

Kiara furrowed her brow. “Do you know someone who can come pick us
up?”

Ryn laughed delightedly. “Love,
we don’t need a ride. The night is ours—we’re made for this.”

“Ryn,” Kiara said reluctantly.
“We’re not supposed to shift when someone might see us.”

“Who’s gonna see?” Ryn threw out
her arms. “It’s three in the morning, and it’s colder than my Aunt Nari’s
side-eye. No one’s gonna see us.”

“We’re in the middle of downtown.”

“Come on,” Ryn gave Kiara a
gentle shove. “Live a little. Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like?
To run through the city and know you own it? That no one can take that away
from you?”

Kiara glanced at the street
behind them. Now that they’d moved farther from the club, it was deserted in
all directions. She’d lost track of how many shots she and Ryn had done in the
club, but it was enough that alcohol buzzed through her system and awoke
something wild and reckless.

“I’ve done it before,” Ryn
coaxed. “It was fine. No one saw me. And I got home in one piece, well before
the sun rose and people started venturing out. It’ll take us like, half an
hour, max.”

“We’ll stuff them there.” Ryn
pointed to a stack of milk cartons at the edge of a nearby alley. “And tomorrow
we can come back for them.”

“Well…” Kiara had a midterm
tomorrow afternoon and she’d been planning to get up early to study since she’d
missed the last few classes. Not too
earlythough, she thought
giggling, remembering that it was already tomorrow. “All right. As long as no
one sees us.”

Ryn grinned and grabbed Kiara so
she could kiss her. Ryn tasted like alcohol, and warmth, and the menthol
cigarettes Kiara had been smoking. Kiara’s resolve crumbled, replaced with a
mounting excitement. She had wondered what it would be like, but neither she nor
her cousins had ever gotten up the nerve to disobey their parents and shift in
a city.

Ryn let out
an excited, drunken whoop and started to shed her clothing.

*
* *

About the Author

Michelle Osgood writes queer, feminist romance from her tiny
apartment in Vancouver, BC. She loves stories in all media, especially those
created by Shonda Rhimes, and dreams of one day owning a wine cellar to rival
Olivia Pope’s. She is active in Vancouver’s poly and LGBTQ communities, never
turns down a debate about pop culture, and is trying to learn how to cook. Her
first novel, The Better to Kiss You With,
was published by Interlude Press in 2016.

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